UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE
Fort Worth, Texas

March 2002

SOUTHERN TOPICS

Working Together To Save Lives

REGIONAL DIRECTOR

IMPROVED SOUTHERN REGION WARNINGS. We all know that severe weather comes
early to the South and after hurricane season severe convective weather stays even longer. This
year has been no exception and so far warning verification statistics indicate our offices are doing
an excellent job. From October 2001 through last month, Southern Region WFOs issued 68% of
all severe weather and tornado warnings in the U.S. Eighty-two percent of all tornado warnings
were issued by Southern Region offices.

Further, in the same period, average lead time for SR tornado warnings rose to above 13 minutes.
Lead time for severe thunderstorms has also increased to about 16 minutes. We all realize that
lead time will vary based on the type of events we experience, but this performance is very
gratifying. The field offices are commended for doing their best. It is certainly the hard work of
every Southern Region employee which makes our warning and forecast services so successful.
The proud and 132 year long tradition of services to our nation when they are needed most is a
result of our dedicated field work force.

NATIONAL CORPORATE WEB IMAGE IMPLEMENTED. When the NWS directors
desired a corporate Web image, implemented as soon as possible and with a consistent NWS-wide appearance, the challenge was given to the Southern Region. This monumental task has
been largely completed, and with great success. Hats off to the Southern Region team members
who made this possible. Most important is the satisfaction of our customers and partners,
evidenced by the following sample of comments received all across the region:

"Your website is incredible. The zone forecast page is outstanding. The arrangement and
accessibility of related products allows for efficient and easy navigation. You are a trend setter in
your field. I have a great appreciation of your expertise and application of your talents which
translates to a more effective work product at my end."

"Absolutely superb!"

"It is hard to imagine the government doing anything right, but with your new website you have
blown ... that thinking completely out of the ... water."

"I'm so impressed."

"I think the design looks really nice and organized, and the warning/advisory map on the front is
super-awesome!"

"I just checked your new website out and found it to be very user friendly and informative...just
what Emergency Management needs, tell everyone, JOB WELL DONE."

"Love the NEW NWS page. It seems that everything has become just a few clicks of the keyboard
away. Who gets up in the morning and turns on the tube and waits for the weather report when
with dedicated service (Cable, DSL etc) its like as if its there, WAITING ON YOU!"

And folks we have many more. Congratulations to all offices for implementing the new Web
image in such a timely manner, and to all NWS employees who contributed to this effort. The
Southern Region Web farm (www.srh.noaa.gov) has the NWS-wide corporate image throughout
all our regions' Web sites. Likewise that same corporate Web image can be found on all Web
sites across the National Weather Service.

WARNING IMPROVEMENT TEAM REPORT. Last fall, a team of Southern Region
managers was commissioned to examine our warning operations and report what could be done
to continue improvements, modernization, and our mission delivery which employees have made
possible to the American people. Obviously, the warning program has always been a priority
which has had us all looking for ways to improve our warnings, hence the formation of this team.

The Southern Region Warning Improvement Team, chaired by WFO Lake Charles MIC Steve
Rinard, has just completed this most recent effort and has provided me their report. We will now
begin to implement the thrust of their report as soon as possible.

IFPS

IFPS TRAINING. A two-day IFPS Training Planning Team meeting was held in late February
at the NWS Training Center in Kansas City. Attendees included representatives from all NWS
regions, NWS Headquarters (the OCWWS Training Division and MDL), the NWSTC, WDTB,
COMET, and NCEP. Representing the SR was Chip Kasper from WFO Key West. Primary
participants in the meeting were the five individuals who now comprise an IFPS training team (see
related item in SSD section of this month's Topics). The goal of the meeting was to produce a
national IFPS Professional Development Series (PDS) which will identify all IFPS-related training
needs and specify how they will be addressed in future plans.

A highlight of the meeting was a presentation by Lynn Maximuk (MIC, WFO Pleasant Hill) in
which he described the many challenges his staff faced during IFPS implementation, and some of
the methods they used to address the challenges. Current IFPS training deficiencies were identified
within small working groups through the use of a silent-structured brainstorming approach. After
many subsequent and stimulating discussions, consensus was reached on the new IFPS PDS and the
Professional Competency Units (PCUs), or specific training areas, which the training developers will
undertake. Executive producers were assigned for each PDS/PCU category. The IFPS Training
Planning Team will continue to interact and expand the categories via e-mail until approximately
next September, when the team will be dissolved.

CLIMATE, WATER AND WEATHER DIVISION

METEOROLOGICAL SERVICES BRANCH

OFFICE TOURS AND SECURITY. We have received the following update of official policy
regarding this subject: You may allow small groups to come into your facilities. They must provide
proper identification and must be escorted at all times by an NWS employee. A large group that
cannot be contained or controlled is not authorized. Please ensure this policy is followed strictly at
your facility.

CIAMS SEMINAR. In February, WFO Fort Worth MIC Bill Bunting provided the monthly
CIAMS seminar at the Texas A&M University in College Station. His subject was "The Role of
Forecaster Judgment and Expertise in Issuing Severe Storm Warnings in the NWS." About 50
students and faculty were in attendance. Bernard Meisner (SSD) and WFO Houston SOO Steve
Allen also participated. Bill stressed the importance of developing and applying expertise in the
analysis of the pre-storm environment, and the proper interpretation of base radar data as well as
WSR-88D algorithm output when making warning decisions. Situation Awareness was discussed,
and the audience was given a taste of the challenges of making warning decisions in a modernized
NWS office.

FLASH GOES FEDERAL. FLASH (formerly Florida Alliance for Safe Homes) is beginning to
expand beyond the borders of Florida. Now, FLASH (Federal Alliance for Safe Homes) will be
working with other states to share the organization's "lessons learned" and other resources to assist
in their development of mitigation/prevention education for consumers. The expansion will include
the states of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Texas.

FLASH initially began as a program in Florida to help educate consumers about mitigating hurricane
damage. The non-profit organization quickly expanded and has become a major education source
for multiple types of hazzards including weather, wildfire, water and homeland security issues. The
popular "FLASH Cards" are available via the FLASH Web site and in hardcopy upon request. One
of FLASH's early publicity campaigns included a NOAA Weather Radio PSA (Public Service
Announcement) in both English and Spanish.

Steven Cooper (CWWD), the NOAA/NWS liaison with FLASH, recently attended the
organization's winter meeting. In addition to the expansion of the organization, he reports FLASH
was awarded the Florida Fire Chiefs' "Award of Excellence in Education in Florida" on February
1, this year and awarded the Florida Emergency Preparedness Association's "Corporate Award for
Education" on February 7.

FLASH is composed of both public and private sector representatives. Review their Web site at
www.flash.org to learn more about the organization, what you can do to make your home less
vulnerable to disasters, and many other types of consumer information.

SEVERE WEATHER PREPAREDNESS AND OUTREACH

WFO Brownsville MIC Richard Hagan provided an interesting and entertaining PowerPoint
presentation titled, "A Short History of Weather and the Brownsville Office," to the "STARS" Texas
HAM radio group. Richard's long tenure as the Brownsville MIC allowed him to provide the 30
person audience a quarter-century historical perspective on improvements in NWS technology,
warning and forecast capabilities.

WFO Little Rock WCM John Robinson traveled to Arkadelphia, Arkansas, for a day long outreach
effort during which he and the Clark County emergency manager talked about severe weather safety
and preparedness to three consecutive and attentive middle school assemblies. Students from the
school will be awarded prizes by the local emergency manager for the most creative poster
highlighting severe weather safety. John's presentation was further enhanced by coverage from a
local radio station.

WFO Lake Charles lead forecaster Kent Kuyper enthusiastically provided an outreach and severe
weather preparedness presentation to nearly 200 students at the De Ridder, Louisiana, Junior High
School. Kent focused his topics to severe weather safety and NWS operations.

WFO Jackson WCM Jim Butch manned an NWS booth at the annual two-day Jackson Hamfest and
provided eager customers with informative and expert descriptions of severe weather phenomena.
He also promoted the need for real-time severe weather information from Ham radio operators and
encouraged everyone to visit the NWS Jackson Web site. Jim's NWS display booth also provided
hundreds of customers an opportunity to talk with their local weather expert, share their severe
weather experiences and pick up the latest NWS preparedness brochures.

WFO Brownsville. Several staff members participated and manned the NWS display booth at the
"2nd Annual Winter Texan's Expo" in McAllen, Texas. During the two-day event over 700
customers registered to win a free weather radio and pick up the latest NWS preparedness and safety
brochures at the NWS booth which was manned by senior forecaster Paul Yura, forecaster Mick
McGuire, DAPM Jim Campbell, HMT Tony Abbott and ASA Rachel Gutierriez.

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT COORDINATION

Three New StormReady Sites. The StormReady program continued to grow in the Southern
Region during February! WFO Mobile recognized Baldwin County (Mobile metro area), WFO
Morristown recognized Jefferson County (Knoxville metro area), and WFO Lubbock recognized the
city of Lubbock. There are now 18 new StormReady sites in Southern Region for FY02.

WFO Lake Charles Readies EMs for Hurricane Season. MIC Steve Rinard briefed the
Louisiana Preparedness Shelter Task Force on the 2002 hurricane season forecast and potential
impacts on the Louisiana coast. Steve is also busy coordinating a hurricane response exercise that
will involve the NWS, Louisiana state and local offices of emergency preparedness, and various
relief agencies such as the Red Cross in early April.

Texas WFOs unite to promote StormReady. WFO Austin/San Antonio MIC Joe Arellano and
San Angelo WCM Hector Guerrero teamed up with Texas state emergency management to host a
successful second "StormReady Panel Workshop" in Austin. The objective of the team, coupled
with advice and input from several other Texas WFO MIC/WCM attendees, was to provide state and
local emergency management participants (over 65 attended) the step-by-step process of how to
become a StormReady recognized county or community.

MEDIA/PUBLIC/EXTERNAL CUSTOMER SUPPORT

Guest Columnist Program. WFO Melbourne WCM Dennis Decker and other staff members have
instituted a creative and successful program which will routinely provide the local media with timely
NWS authored weather and preparedness articles for the county warning and forecast area. The goal
is to proactively market and promote the NWS mission and services to the public by sending
seasonally timed articles, guest columns and letters-to-the-editor to their local major newspapers.
Dennis noted that editors who were contacted embraced the idea and preferred articles of one page
or about 500 words. The first article, "Are you Weatherwise or Otherwise," was a huge success and
was carried by six major newspapers in Melbourne's CWFA.

Dedication of Weather Equipment at Ocean Reef. WFO Key West MIC Bobby McDaniel,
WCM Wayne Presnell, SOO Jack Settelmaier and ITO Patti Schmidt dedicated the recent
installation of a HANDAR Data Collection Platform (DCP) to measure weather conditions at Ocean
Reef on the north part of Key Largo. The installation and implementation of the DCP was through
the collective efforts of WFO Key West, Monroe County Emergency Management and the
community of Ocean Reef. The equipment will provide the NWS and its customers, with consistent
hourly weather observations around the clock.

Guidance Counselor Shadows the WCM. WFO Nashville WCM Jerry Orchanian provided a
local high school guidance counselor the opportunity to shadow him while on shift in order to
provide her students with an accurate depiction of the duties, responsibilities, expertise and
knowledge required by an NWS meteorologist in performing his or her duties. This positive
experience for the high school counselor will give her tools to better prepare students who may be
interested in a career in meteorology.

MARINE PROGRAM

Southern Region Marine Workshop. The SR Marine Workshop will be held April 2-5 in Biloxi,
Mississippi. Items on the agenda already include a visit to the National Data Buoy Center,
presentations on marine hazmet and verification, and presentations from the National Marine
Fisheries and the Coastal Risk Atlas group.

Good News for New PMO. Jack Warrelman, who was run over by a van in January, had his six-
week doctor's visit and the X-Rays show his broken shoulder is healing on its own, so Jack will not
need surgery. Jack is anxious to get back to work, servicing and recruiting ships for the Voluntary
Observing Ship Program, and so the good news was music to his ears.

NHC/TPC Marine Discussion. The Tropical Prediction Center will be issuing a new text product,
the Marine Weather Discussion, which will be transmitted twice daily at 0730 and 1930 UTC. The
product ID and WMO header are: MIAMIMATS AGXX40 KNHC.

2002 Miami International Boat Show. Last month the 2002 Miami International Boat Show was
held at the Miami Beach Convention Center and two other nearby locations. The boat show, one
of the largest in the world with more than one billion dollars in exhibits, was attended by more than
300,000 people. Ten staff members from WFO Miami and the NCEP/Tropical Prediction Center
staffed a booth at the convention center location from 10am to 10 pm daily. Additionally, the
Marine Prediction Center sent Wayne Weeks and Tim Rulon to attend the show. This year for the
first time in more than ten years the NWS booth was combined with the National Marine Fisheries
Service.

With the added NOAA resources it was possible to upgrade the booth's location as well as the
display itself. The booth featured a continuous PowerPoint presentation, and showcased such things
as the NWR voice improvement and the latest in wireless technology. Many NWS brochures were
distributed and the vast majority of passersby commented very favorably on NWS products and
services. Participating from the WFO were Bob Ebaugh, WCM Jim Lushine and Robert Garcia.

Texas plans to provide NWR coverage to all counties within the state. Increasing the coverage to
100 percent across the state will likely result in an additional 50 NWR transmitters being added to the NWR network.

Eleven locations in Southern Region have recently received USDA grants for NWR systems. They
are: Lobelville, Centerville and Vale, Tennessee; Broken Bow and Atoka, Oklahoma; Sweetwater, Uvalde, D'Hanis, Dilley and Rio Grande City, Texas. Twenty-one other potential NWR sites in the region are involved in the application process and are vying for the remainder of the USDA grant
money.

VOICE IMPROVEMENT PROJECT (VIP) UPDATE. WFOs across the Southern Region should have received the Voice Improvement Processor (VIP) software and hardware to begin CRS Build 8.0 and VIP installation. All sites are encouraged to complete the CRS Build 8.0 and VIP
installation, but will wait until the next VIP software installation version 2.0 becomes available in mid-March before doing CRS dictionary work and broadcasting the new voices.

HYDROLOGIC SERVICES BRANCH

REGIONAL WHFS DATA SHARING TEAM UPDATE. The SR WHFS Data Sharing team
conducted its first conference call last month. The names of the team representatives were provided in the previous edition of Topics. The objectives of this team are to (1) develop a set of guidelines
and standards governing the entry and maintenance of site data in the WHFS relational databases and (2) establish methods to transfer hydrologic information between the WFO and RFC hydrologic databases. The conference call focused on the team charter, hydrologic database data entry standards, and supporting software functionalites to satisfy the objectives outlined in the Team Charter. The team will develop/identify software which can be used by both the WFOs and RFCs to meet the stated objectives. The goal is to have each RFC test and evaluate the software with a designated WFO in its service area by the end of the calendar year.

IHC FLOOD MAPPING SESSION. The Inter-Departmental Hurricane Conference in New
Orleans this month will include a flood mapping applications workshop co-sponsored by the NWS, U.S. Geological Survey, and the NOAA Coastal Services Center. The session will include presentations about flood mapping activities in various agencies including the NWS, USGS, and FEMA. One NWS presentation will focus on an ARCVIEW flood forecast mapping tool developed by the Office of Hydrologic Development. LMRFC HIC Dave Reed will also give a presentation
about LMRFC procedures for integrating Tropical Prediction Center SLOSH model real-time storm surge time series with hydraulic models in the NWS River Forecast System to simulate storm surge backwater effects upstream from the mouth of the Mississippi River.

CADAS REPLACEMENT SYSTEM SUPPORT. The NWS Corporate Board approved an unfunded request submitted by the NWSH Office of Climate, Water, and Weather Service
Hydrologic Services Division to develop a CADAS replacement system. This unfunded request was driven by the recent CADAS system failures at NWSH. It is anticipated it will take up to six months to develop this new system. This CADAS replacement system will be more user friendly and more robust to handle current data requirements from phone-interrogated data collection platforms. We will keep you posted on this development.

CRA WORK MEETING. WFO Jacksonville SOO Pat Welsh, WFO Tallahassee senior service
hydrologist Joel Lanier, and state meteorologist for the Florida Emergency Operations Center Andy Devanas attended a Coastal Risk Atlas (CRA) working meeting held in Jacksonville last November. The CRA is being developed to provide identification and access to coastal data (primarily in a GIS
context) for community vulnerability assessments. More details on this and prior CRA meetings as well as presentations may be downloaded at ftp://ftp.csc.noaa.gov/incoming/riskatlas/.

CESPR MEETING. Dave Furbish, head of the Center for Earth Surface Process Research
(CESPR) at Innovation Park at Florida State University hosted a meeting to overview and discuss approaches for modeling rivers and closed basins in Florida. The meeting was attended by Andy Devanas, state meteorologist for the state of Florida, Joel Lanier, WFO Tallahassee service hydrologist, Francois le Dimet (an applied mathematician specializing in inverse methods for
parameter estimation from the National Research Institute in Computer Science and control at Grenoble France), Yousuff Hussaini (an applied mathematician specializing in advanced computations at FSU) and Steffanie Kolbus a graduate student at CESPR. Several topics were discussed including the current operational hydrologic needs in the Florida area and 1-D and 2-D
river modeling being done in France.

MDEQ MEETING. The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality hosted a meeting and
provided a forum for project managers working on grants from the NOAA Coastal Impact Assistance Program to share plans. Lower Mississippi RFC HIC Dave Reed and WFO New Orleans senior service hydrologist Dave Smith were in attendance. NOAA-funded gauges installed by Jackson County will assist in forecasting by providing better mean areal precipitation values. The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality will collaborate in this project.

RESEARCH RAINFALL NETWORK DATA USED BY RFC. The Cooperative Huntsville Area Rainfall Measurements (CHARM) network covers Madison, Limestone and Morgan Counties
which straddle the Tennessee River in northern Alabama. Rainfall data are collected daily by NASA researchers from the Marshall Space Flight Center, other agencies and local volunteers. Dr. Gary Jedlovec and others at MSFC initiated the network in January 2001 in support of on-going research,
and the rainfall reports are now being used by the LMRFC in Slidell, whose area of responsibility
includes the Tennessee River Basin. Keith Stellman (LMRFC) worked with MSFC to acquire the
data in real-time. Interactions such as this will be facilitated further when the new Huntsville WFO
becomes operational next year, and as part of the newly established Short-term Prediction Research
and Transition (SPoRT) Center at the Global Hydrology and Climate Center. GHCC is a partnership
involving NASA/MSFC and the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Other collaborative research
activities have been on-going between WFO Birmingham and GHCC for several years.

Other collaborative work between the LMRFC and GHCC includes providing real-time daily QPF
and hourly Stage III data. These data are used by GHCC in the development of a fully distributed
river model for the Amite River Basin located in the Baton Rouge area. For this project, GHCC is
planning to use high resolution DEM data from LIDAR to generate flood inundation maps using
the output from the distributed model. GHCC also plans on sharing the LIDAR data with the
LMRFC once the data have sufficient quality control. GHCC and LMRFC personnel presented a
paper at the recent AMS conference in Orlando which outlined a procedure to use radar to distribute
daily rain gauges into hourly intervals. GHCC is now in the process of testing this using the
CHARM network and the Hytop WSR-88D.

FFMP MEETING. The Flash Flood Monitoring and Prediction (FFMP) working group met at
NWS Headquarters in January. WFO Morristown service hydrologist Brian Boyd attended. Brian
provided field feedback on the Graphical User Interface (GUI) design for FFMP 2.0 and the FFMP
basin map display. Participants saw a demonstration of the Multisensor Precipitation Estimator
(MPE), which is replacing the PPS Stage II and Stage III precipitation processing application at the
RFCs and Stage II precipitation processing application of the WFOs.

FEMA FLOOD MAPPING WEB SITE. FEMA has been spending a great deal of effort, funds
and time with various mapping modernization projects. Their Web site
www.fema.gov/mit/tsd/fmc_main.htm provides interesting inland flood maps and will eventually
include hurricane surge.

HSA ACTIVITIES AT THE WFO LAKE CHARLES. Last month a meeting was held in
Beaumont, Texas including representatives of the Jefferson County Drainage District 6, WFO Lake
Charles and the West Gulf RFC. Topics of discussion included obtaining real-time Jefferson County
Alert System data in the NWS data base, and flooding along Pine Island Bayou as happened last year
during tropical storm Allison. The following actions resulted from the meeting: A system will be
set up to send real-time Alert system data to WFO Lake Charles every 15 minutes using LDAD.
These data will help the WGRFC with Stage III precipitation estimates used in forecasting the Pine
Island Bayou. Also, the data will help WFO Lake Charles in issuing Flash Flood Warnings for
Jefferson County. The WGRFC will work closely with Drainage District 6 on finding stage
relationships along the Pine Island Bayou downstream from the current forecast point at Sour Lake.
Further meetings are planned.

REACH MEETING. The RFC Enhancement of Advanced Communication in Hydrology
(REACH) team met in Peachtree City, Georgia, in late January to discuss ideas for the Southern
Region RFCs to investigate advanced communication technologies and techniques, evaluate
operational potential, and implement operational capabilities to enhance communication and better
serve and educate customers, both internal and external to the NWS. Team members in attendance
included SERFC HIC John Feldt (team leader), DOH Brad Gimmestad, hydrologists Jack Bushong
and Johnathan Atwell, ABRFC senior hydrologist Greg Stanley, WGRFC hydrologist Greg Waller,
senior HAS forecaster Cyndie Ableman, and SRH hydrology program manager Kandis Boyd. The
2002 REACH Team initiatives include: enhancing Southern Region RFC communication capability
to state emergency management, FEMA, and other key hydrologic partners; investigating and
possibly demonstrating the use of Web streaming to communicate RFC information to a wide variety
of users; aggressively increasing Southern Region RFC visibility/communication capability with
media; and investigating additional avenues of communication technologies.

SOUTHERN REGION RFC WEB TEAM. The SR RFC Web team held a conference call last
month to start work for FY 2002. Those in attendance included: team leader Dave Reed, LMRFC
hydrologist Ethan Jolly and senior hydrologist Keith Stellman, WGRFC senior HAS forecaster
Cyndie Abelman, SERFC hydrologists Jonathan Atwell and Jack Bushong, ABRFC DOH Bill
Lawrence, HAS forecaster John Schmidt, and hydrologist Ken Pavelle, and Kandis Boyd from SRH.
The conference call included briefings on the national "one-stop" Web team activities and plans,
Internet mapping, and the AHPS WFO Web page plans. The team discussed activities to accomplish
in the upcoming year as well as establishing a method to retrieve a baseline set of RFC products.
The team discussed activities to accomplish in the upcoming year which included establishing a
method to retrieve a baseline set of RFC products and implementing the NWS corporate Web
image.

WFO BROWNSVILLE OUTREACH ACTIVITIES. WFO Brownsville MIC Richard Hagan
met with engineer Jesus Martinez de la Cerda from Monterrey, Mexico. The state of Nuevo Leon
has agreed to fund a Doppler radar for their organization to assist in management of water supplies.
WFO Brownsville will have access to these data in the near future, providing extensive radar
coverage into the headwaters of the Rio San Juan. This river enters the Rio Grande below Falcon
Dam and has the potential of creating a flood on the Rio Grande, which could require the
International Boundary and Water Commission (IB&WC) to open the floodways to avoid flooding
in Brownsville/Matamoras.

Having access to radar data from this site would allow the WFO to provide better support to the
IB&WC in anticipating rises on the Rio San Juan. In addition, the radar data could possibly increase
lead time of warnings issued for severe weather moving from the front slopes of the Mexican
mountains. By sharing our WSR-88D expertise, WFO staff will help engineer de la Cerda utilize
their new radar in the fastest and best way possible. The radar should be installed and operating by
the end of 2002, or early 2003.

WFO SAN JUAN OUTREACH ACTIVITIES. On January 31, WFO San Juan hydrologist Eloy
Colon and WCM Rafael Mojica met with U.S. Dept. of Interior, Bureau of Reclamation Technical
Center project engineers to discuss Puerto Rico's historical floods, hurricane climatology and storm
data. This was in response to a Puerto Rico Power Authority project which is analyzing storm
vulnerability of the island manmade water reservoirs. On February 6 Rafael met with members of
the Barranquitas municipality mayor's office to discuss the StormReady concept and requirements.
The municipality was designated a Project Impact Community last year and they were interested in
implementing StormReady.

SCIENTIFIC SERVICES DIVISION

VERIFICATION FOR MORE LOCATIONS. The eventual goal of the NWS is toverify every
element we forecast at every projection out to seven days. This will become possible when we
evolve from our present point-wise verification system (verification at relatively few specific
observation sites) to a system which verifies gridded forecasts. For such a system to work, of course,
a denser more technologically sophisticated network of surface observations will also be required.
In the mean time, we will stick with point verification, but we will begin to test gridded verification
in areas where it is feasible. A first step in this direction is to increase the number of verification
sites for which we compute verification statistics. All offices were notified last month by email that
WFOs are now authorized to increase the number of national public forecast verification sites
representing the office. Verification statistics for the new sites will be available on the national
verification Web page.

Due to limited programming resources at NWSH, this expansion must be incorporated with minimal
coding changes to the current verification software. Therefore, for the time being, (a) forecasts will
only be verified for Days 1 and 2 (as is currently the practice), and (b) each new verification site
must have complete MOS data from the aviation AVN model available. Increasing the number of
verification sites is optional for each WFO. For complete instructions on setting up additional
verification sites, please refer to the email noted above, or contact the verification program leader
in CWWD.

EXPANDED NWP TRAINING AND SUPPORT. COMET has announced two new
newsgroups: Eta-Discuss and AVN/Global-Discuss. These newsgroups supplement the current
online NWP training materials by providing direct interaction among NWP users. Stephen Jascourt
and Bill Bua, COMET meteorologists at NCEP, will answer questions about the NCEP Eta model
and "Meso" model (used for the "high resolution window run"), and the NCEP Global model. Bill
and Stephen will also facilitate two-way communication between field forecasters and NCEP model
developers.

Just some examples of good topics for discussion might include impacts of model changes, cases
when the model appears to be doing something unrealistic, effects of model parameterization, or
cases when the model performed exceptionally well (the point being, what led to such good forecasts
in that case?). The newsgroups are available from the MetEd home page (http://meted.ucar.edu) or
can be accessed directly from the NWP Newsgroups home page

(http://meted.ucar.edu/nwp/newsgroups/index.htm). COMET encourages feedback on this new
forum; e-mail the NWP development team at nwp12@comet.ucar.edu, or send comments directly
to Bill (Bill.Bua@noaa.gov) and Stephen (Stephen.Jascourt@noaa.gov).

NATIONAL IFPS TRAINING TEAM. The Training Division of the NWSH Office Of Climate,
Water and Weather Services has reorganized to provide two additional trainers who will help
accelerate the development of IFPS training, with emphasis in the coming year on science aspects
of IFPS applications. The new trainers are Shannon White and Brian Motta. Shannon, who has been
the focal point for the IFPS Gridded Forecast Editor (GFE) at WFO Wilmington, will relocate to
NWSH to work closely with IFPS developers in MDL. Brian has worked as a Training Project
Investigator at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) at Colorado State,
and he has played a major role in the NWS Virtual Institute for Satellite Integration Training - VISIT
- program through his work on VISITView teletraining. Brian will continue to work in Boulder
collocated with IFPS developers at FSL. Both Shannon and Brian are well versed in forecaster needs
and training development. They will join Sam Beckman and Bob Hamilton at the NWSTC, and
Kevin Fuell at COMET to form a five-person IFPS training team.

LIGHTNING UPDATE. Global Atmospherics, Inc., the commercial vendor who provides
lightning data we utilize via AWIPS, has begun work on a major upgrade to their National Lightning
Detection Network (NLDN). When completed the NLDN will provide cloud lightning data across
the U.S., in addition to improved cloud-to-ground lightning data. How our contractual arrangements
with GAI may change to take advantage of this remains to be determined.

GAI has also announced the 17th International Lightning Detection Conference, to be held October
16-18, 2002, at Tucson, Arizona. The conference will cover new developments in lightning research
and applications, with topics including lightning signatures, geographic and orographic effects on
observed lightning parameters, global lightning detection, 3-D lightning mapping, forecasting
improvements, aviation issues, developing safety recommendations, and others.

MetEd WEBSITE UPDATED. COMET's MetEd Web site (www.meted.ucar.edu) has been
updated to improve usability and to reflect the site's use by a broad community of operational,
research, academic, media and private meteorologists. Navigation is simplified and download times
are speeded up. The changes were also made to complement the NWS Training Portal Web site
(http://www.nwstc.noaa.gov/nwstrn) maintained by the NWS Training Center. The latter is
specifically intended for NWS employees to access training resources related to their work areas.
On the new MetEd home page you will see:

A new "Self-paced Learning" link (formerly "Web-based Modules") which leads to
a list categorized by topics of self-paced training resources of various types
(Web-based modules, archived Webcasts, CD-ROM modules, etc).

A "Courses and Teletraining" link which provides ready access to COMET course
schedules as well as to other schedules for both classroom and teletraining offerings
by COMET and others (NWSTC and the WDTB). This link will connect you to both
in-residence courses and to virtual courses delivered over the Web.

A new "Professional Curricula" link (formerly "Professional Development") where
learning materials are grouped as curricula elements that address professional skills
and knowledge required by operational forecasters as well as other professionals who
use weather information.

"Resource Links," which were updated to reflect resources offered by the COMET
sponsoring agencies, as well as resources available from other organizations.

On the MetEd home page you will continue to see a "splash" section for "What is New" and
Program Notes. There are also links to other resource sites such as two which provide support
materials for the SOOs and WCMs. A link to the COMET Multimedia Database provides a
searchable resource for locating media objects used in COMET Web-based and CD-ROM modules.
These media objects can be downloaded and used in locally developed education and training
materials such as PowerPoint presentations.

UPCOMING CHANGES TO NCEP MODEL SUITE. A series of changes to the NCEP global
spectral model are planned for this spring. A tentative date of March 5 has been set to increase the
forecast length of all four of the AVN runs of the global spectral model to 384 hours (16 days). The
model currently produces 126 hour (5 1/4 day) forecasts at 0000 and 1200 UTC and 84 hour (3 ½
day) forecasts at 0600 and 1800 UTC. There will be no changes to the data on the AWIPS Satellite
Broadcast Network (SBN).

A tentative date of April 23, 2002 has been set to terminate the 0000 UTC MRF run of the global
spectral model. On AWIPS, model grids will still be available under the "MRF" menus out to 240
hours, but the source of the data will be the 0000 UTC run of the global spectral model.

The only differences between the current MRF and 0000 UTC AVN runs of the global spectral
model are that the MRF run starts about four hours later (waiting for additional data to arrive from
around the globe) and continues to 240 hours (decreasing resolution from T170L42 to T62/L28 at
168 hours [Day 7]). Since remotely-sensed data now comprise the vast majority of those used to
initialize the model, it is no longer necessary to wait the additional time to have sufficient
information from around the globe before starting the MRF global model run. Rawindsonde data
are still important and will continue to influence the model initialization through the Global Data
Assimilation System used by every run of the global spectral model.

In early May the resolution of the NCEP global model will be increased from T170L42 to T254L64
(a change in equivalent horizontal grid spacing from ~75 to ~50 km). There will be no changes to
the data on the AWIPS SBN.

By the end of March the experimental version of the Eta model, which is used to produce the
HiResWindow nested forecasts, will be changed to a non-hydrostatic version and the grid spacing
will change from 10 km to 8 km. The model will continue to use essentially the same physics
packages (i.e., Betts-Miller-Janjic convection and Ferrier's gridscale-microphysics scheme which
was implemented last November) as the operational model. The output from these daily parallel
runs can viewed at: http://www.emc.ncep.noaa.gov/mmb/mmbpll/nestpage.test/

An upgrade to the Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) model has been tentatively scheduled for April 9 at
1200 UTC. A real-time test and evaluation of this 20 km RUC will begin the first week of March.
WFOs Lake Charles, Little Rock and Miami have volunteered to participate in the test and
evaluation. There will be no change in the forecast grids being disseminated via the AWIPS SBN
or the Family of Services.

The next NCEP quarterly backup test has been tentatively scheduled for the 0000 UTC cycle on
April 4. If the weather situation prohibits this test, it will be attempted on April 11. This test,
originally scheduled for February 14 was delayed due to ongoing computer upgrades at the Air Force
Weather Agency.

The Coastal Ocean Forecast System (COFS), which has been running in a real-time parallel mode,
will be operationally implemented on March 12.

A list of the major model implementations planned for 2002 can be found at:

As additional information about each implementation becomes available, links will be added on the
change summary page.

ELECTRONIC DISCUSSION GROUPS FOR NWP MODELS. The new Eta-Discuss and
AVN/Global-Discuss news groups have been established to supplement the current selection of
online numerical weather prediction (NWP) materials with direct interaction among NWP users.
NCEP COMET meteorologists Stephen Jascourt and Bill Bua will answer questions about the NCEP
Eta model (both the operational version and the experimental version used for the HiResWindow
runs) and the NCEP global spectral model used in the AVN and MRF runs. These news groups are
intended to facilitate two-way communication between the field and the model developers.

The NOAA Forecast Systems Laboratory continues to maintain an on-line forum on the Rapid
Update Cycle (RUC) model. This forum is for discussion, questions and some answers on the 20-km
RUC, which is scheduled to replace the 40-km RUC-2 in early April (see above). The URL is:
http://maps.fsl.noaa.gov/forum/eval20/

ETA-12 OUTPUT AVAILABLE TO FIELD OFFICES. Bernard Meisner (SSD) and Paul
Kirkwood (SOD) recently distributed scripts and instructions to download and display on AWIPS
a limited number of fields at the full resolution of the Eta model. The available fields include two
meter temperature and dew point, 10 meter wind velocity, MSLP and Eta MSLP, CAPE, precipitable
water, total precipitation and convective precipitation.

The fields are extracted from GRIB files posted to the NCEP ftp server. Those files are downloaded
to SRH where they are converted to the AWIPS netCDF format. To improve transmission speed
over the regional Frame Relay network, data for a Southern Region sector are extracted from the full
model domain and the file is compressed before being placed on our model output server. At the
moment we're only decoding output through 60 hours from the 0000 and 1200 UTC runs (although
output through 84 hours is available). Recall the 0600 and 1800 runs only extend to 48 hours.

Note that the delivery of these files is not "operational." Currently, output from the 0600 and 1800
UTC model runs is the most reliable, appearing on the NCEP file server soon after the end of the
model run. Files from the 0000 and 1200 UTC runs are more spotty, although NCEP expects to
activate a new server sometime this year to improve their timeliness.

NEW TECH MEMOS. The following new Southern technical memoranda have been distributed
to all offices.

SECURITY. Essentially all Southern Region personnel completed the NOAA IT Security
Awareness course as of February 28, 2002. There are a few who were unable to take the course due
to military commitment, long term sick leave, or long term personal leave. They will be required to
complete the course upon their return to work.

NETSCAPE MAIL. A Netscape server problem last month required use of the SRH backup
system. This was the first time all the pieces were in place for a smooth transition. Replication was
working and all mail was updated real-time on the backup server. The total down time was 20
minutes while reconstruction was taking place, then the system was brought on-line with no loss of
electronic mail.

UPPER AIR. A team was dispatched to Tallahassee to help install the ART-1 system at the new
WFO's location on the FSU campus. Three problems needed to be resolved before installation could
begin. First, the Rhone tower for the target antenna had to be installed. A free standing tower has
been purchased that will withstand the State requirement of 110 MPH for three seconds, however,
it will be another nine to ten weeks before it can be delivered. Second, the dome had been ordered
without any ventilation, therefore the dome will have to come down and ventilation will be installed
before it is put back in place. Third, the stairs giving access to the dome had not been installed, nor
was there a system for hoisting heavy equipment up to the dome.

NWR CIRCUITS. This continues to be a hot topic of discussion, so much so that weekly team
meetings are now held at SRH to discuss NWR issues, and an NWR program database has been
established as an information source for all parties involved with the program. We are focusing on
getting everything installed on time and together. One main phone circuit problem continues to be
addressing issues with telephone providers. These issues must be worked on a case-by-case basis
to iron out any discrepancies. We are committed to providing the best service to our customers in
the most efficient manner possible.

The initial effort to assess the communications needs for WFO Huntsville is gaining momentum.
We will report more detail on this project as it progresses.

WSR-88D. ORPG installations are going on at a feverish pace in the region, with great results.
We are now approximately three-quarters of the way done with the installation.

AWIPS. Build 5.1.2 installation is going smoothly across Southern Region. Two patches are
available to fix problems with the 5.1.2. The 5.1.2.1 patch fixes some minor problems with the new
wind chill program. The 5.1.2.2 patch fixes problems with the spontaneous logouts with Linux
systems.

Installation of the new Linux boxes started the first week of March. We are working to have four
sites installed per day.

Instructions and scripts have been provided to offices by Bernard Meisner (SSD) and Paul Kirkwood
(SOD) to allow AWIPS to ingest the new Eta12 model at the full 12km resolution.

Southern Region Headquarters has updated and fixed the AWIPS to allow for the ingest of all
METARS that come down the SBN to enhance the data for the Web. The additions to the files
required have been submitted to NWS Headquarters to have the files updated. These files should
be available from the NOAA1 server in the middle of March.

All Southern Region sites will begin upgrading to RPP 15.1 during March, which will help improve
our forecasting techniques.

SRH will also be alpha testing the new Linux CPs and Linux DS-Preprocessor by the end of March
into early April.

OBSERVATIONS AND FACILITIES BRANCH

KEESLER AFB WSR-88D RELOCATION. Stanford Research International (SRI) has been
tasked by the Radar Operations Center to prepare a comprehensive site survey and environmental
assessment for the primary and secondary relocation sites in Brandon, Mississippi. Representatives
from MASC Real Estate, MASC Environmental Compliance Office, SRI, SRH, and WFO Jackson
convened the week of February 25 in Jackson, located a new secondary site, and met with local
officials in Brandon.

NAPLES, FLORIDA ASOS RELOCATION. Southern Region Headquarters has completed all
necessary tasks needed to commission the FAA sponsored ASOS located in Naples. Once the
completion of some FAA installed interfaces is in place the site can be commissioned. Tentative
target dates are for mid- to late March.

ASOS AUGMENTATION/BACKUP TRANSFER. The FAA has relocated 4 FAA Contract
Weather Observer (CWO) contractors into FAA owned/leased space. However, at the remaining
four sites (Mobile, Jackson, Albuquerque, Corpus Christi) we are still awaiting the FAA order and
installation of telephone circuits to the new CWO location. Property sites have been identified in
all locations and secured at most locations. It is still the goal of both agencies to not have FAA
employed CWOs working from NWS WFOs beyond March 31.

KEY WEST FOC REVIEW. The Facility Oversight Committee (FOC) review of the Key West
Decision Point 3 package is tentatively scheduled for March 18, pending receipt of a Finding of No
Significant Impact as part of the NEPA environmental assessment. Once the environmental
contractor, SRI Inc., has compiled local input from the public comment period now in progress, it
will be forwarded to SRH for the regional director's signature. At that point the FOC can
recommend moving forward with the Design Phase of the new WFO Key West construction, or seek
additional information if needed.

WIRE WEIGHT SAFETY SURVEY. Requests to service hydrologists and hydrology focal
points for additional information on wire weight river gauge locations has resulted in new
information being provided to supplement the CSSA co-op river gauge database. When all Southern
Region sites are accounted for, an actual on-site visit will be necessary to determine the hazard level
of site access for both co-op observers and NWS employees. Following this, modifications to some
sites are expected where permissible, and if not, some alternate method of data collection will be
required to comply with recent OGC opinions on meeting OSHA regulations at river gauge sites.

SURFACE OBSERVATION PROGRAM. Southern Region received 37 requests from the
aviation community for new certificates, cancellations or changes in the type of surface certificates
during January 2002.

NCDC contractors are now completing a project to scan, index and make available on-line all of
NWS cooperative station history forms dating from the 1800s to present. As this project approaches
successful completion, NCDC is preparing to have the contractors repeat the process for the non-cooperative surface observing stations, generally reported on forms A-1 and A-3.

To help ensure NCDC has a comprehensive archive of the information, the Southern Region surface
program manager has requested each office to review their non-cooperative surface observing site
files, and send a copy of each of their A-1, A-3, and other related non-cooperative surface observing
station history forms for each of their stations to NCDC. These forms will be combined with NCDC
files, then imaged, indexed and made available via a Web-based search, retrieval and presentation
system.

UPPER-AIR OBSERVATION PROGRAM. Southern Regions upper air sites have started the
year off extremely well. Fifteen of the 23 sites in the region had their station averages coming in
well above the national average of 283.71. For January, WFO Miami was the highest in the region
with an average of 297.97. WFO Lake Charles rated second with a score of 297.03

Phase I Implementation Plan for the Radiosonde Surface Observing Instrumentation System
(RSOIS) has begun in Southern Region. On February 12, RSOIS was delivered to WFO Midland
for installation. Within four days the system was inspected, measured and installed. Several
comparisons were completed and RSOIS was reported to be working as advertised.

The second RSOIS has arrived in Albuquerque and is scheduled to be installed this week. The
remaining two Phase I RSOIS sites, Tallahassee and Atlanta, will have their RSOIS installed in early
spring.

CSSA MANUAL. Representatives from each of the NWS regions met the week of January 28,
to do a rewrite of the Cooperative Station Service Accountability (CSSA) manual. This manual
contains all the reference material needed to update station metadata related to the co-op program.
The Web-based software for archiving the station meta-data has been available for use since January
2001, but the CSSA manual was still a working draft. The manual has been submitted to NWSH
for approval and distribution.

PROGRAM PERFORMANCE. Several Southern Region offices have done an excellent job of
managing the Cooperative Program within their CWA. For FY02, 15 of the 31 offices have reported
zero missing data. The regional average for missing climatological data (CD) is 0.85% with a
performance standard established at less than two percent. The regional average for missing hourly
precipitation data (HPD) is 1.41% with a performance standard established at less than three percent.
The offices with zero missing data (CD and HPD) are Birmingham, Corpus Christi, Little Rock,
Lubbock, Melbourne, Miami, Morristown, Nashville, New Orleans, San Angelo, Austin/San
Antonio, Shreveport, Tallahassee, Tampa Bay and Tulsa.

ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGEMENT DIVISION

DIVERSITY/EEO AND COMMUNITY OUTREACH ACTIVITIES

WFO BROWNSVILLE continued it's efforts in EEO Outreach activities by participating in Career
Days, attended by every fifth grade student in the city, over a two-day period. ASA Rachel
Gutierrez, DAPM Jim Campbell and HMTs Tony Abbott and Alfredo Vega represented the NWS
at the event, which was held at the Jacob Brown Auditorium on the University of Texas, Brownsville
Campus. Over 1,700 fifth grade students from 16 schools took part in the Career Fair.

In a separate event, Jim, Rachel and Fred participated in the first annual "Central Middle School
Career Pathways Fair" attended by 1,100 sixth, seventh and eighth grade students. Jim and Fred
each did interviews (Fred's in Spanish) with KMBH-TV, the local PBS Affiliate. The station plans
to run the interviews during it's local educational programing hour, year round, to promote career
paths.

Twenty-four members of "Leadership Brownsville" from the University of Texas, Brownsville
Campus, toured the WFO for the seventh consecutive year. The goal of Leadership Brownsville is
to establish constructive interactions with public schools, community colleges, universities and other
relevant organizations and individuals. Jim Campbell gave an introduction as well as a brief history
of the Weather Service in Brownsville. Senior forecaster Tim Speece gave a real-time weather
briefing using the Multi-media Projection System in the operations area. Jim continued the tour
through the office then led the group to the inflation building for a discussion of the station's upper
air observations.

Jim Campbell was invited to be a presenter at the Port Isabel Junior High 2002 Career Fair. Jim
gave a presentation on WFO Brownsville operations focusing on hurricane safety with emphasis on
inland flooding to three seventh grade math classes. Also included were aspects of severe
thunderstorms including lightning, damaging winds, flash floods and hail. Many of the students
recalled the severe thunderstorm that ravaged Port Isabel and South Padre Island on May 3, 2000,
with winds that peaked at 126 mph.

WFO JACKSON. Met intern Doug Cramer spoke to two pre-algebra classes at Brando Middle
School. Doug put together a very nice presentation giving a thorough explanation of duties and
responsibilities at the NWS. Senior forecaster Eric Carpenter gave a one hour presentation to a
second grade class regarding NWS operations and severe weather safety.

Senior forecaster Lynn Burse and Doug Cramer gave an office tour for a Girl Scout troop from the
Mississippi School for the Blind and Deaf. There were ten girls and three house mothers. MIC Jim
Stefkovich also gave a weather talk for eight students and four teachers from the Mississippi School
for the Blind. Jim was very impressed how much they knew about many aspects of meteorology.

MARDI GRAS IN ARKANSAS? Last month, the staff at WFO Little Rock celebrated Mardi
Gras (Fat Tuesday). Salvador Gutierrez and Newton Skiles, co-team leaders of the WFO Little Rock
EEO/Diversity/Ethnic Awareness Team organized a pot-luck luncheon for the staff. The response
was overwhelming and very positive. Several good cooks came forth with their favorite Acadian
(Cajun) dishes for all to sample. During the luncheon, several discussions highlighted the history
and traditions of the Cajuns. Festive Mardi Gras music was enjoyed by the group during the
luncheon. Several people tried to dig deep into their roots to see if there were any Cajun
connections. A good time was had by all.

WFO MIAMI. During Florida Hazardous Weather Awareness Week, WCM Jim Lushine spoke
to a group of 40 middle and high school students and their teachers at Sunset School in Davie,
Florida. Sunset School is a Special Education School for grades K-12 with 160 students and a high
teacher-to-student ratio. The students were keenly aware of hazardous weather, having been
involved in a school-wide tornado drill the day before, and they participated in a lively question and
answer session on lightning, tornadoes, hurricanes and other weather hazards. The talk was followed
by cookies and drinks.

WFO MORRISTOWN participated in Job Shadowing Day by inviting six students from schools
in the Morristown/Greenville, Tennessee area to shadow WFO employees. There were three tenth
graders, two eighth graders, and one seventh grader.

WFO SAN JUAN. WCM, Rafael Mojica visited the University of Puerto Rico Environmental
Science Department and conducted a presentation on Meteorological Science and Research Issues
in Puerto Rico. The talks emphasized local WFO research projects, potential research studies for
summer students at the WFO, NWS SRH initiative with the University of Puerto Rico, and NWS
and NOAA career opportunities. The talk was attended by around sixty junior and senior
environmental science majors.

Rafael also visited the Inter-American University in Barranquitas and conducted a general weather
presentation for sixty students of the Upward Bound Program. This program targets low income
high school students who may also be among the first in their family to consider going to college.
The project provides academic and personal support designed to motivate and prepare the students
for college. Careers in NWS and NOAA were also discussed.

DAPM Francisco Balleste, ESA Bert Gordon, and Rafael Mojica, participated in a full day seminar
on how to set up and manage a portable weather station. The seminar, sponsored by the Arecibo
Ionospheric Observatory Outreach program, and WIPR TV meteorologist Ada Monzon, was well
attended by local science teachers from K-12. The goal of this program is to create a network of
stations across the island of Puerto Rico for educational and emergency management purposes.

WFO SHREVEPORT. DAPM Marion Kuykendall and forecaster Bill Parker, along with Bill's
son Trey and wife Mel, participated again this year in the annual African American History Parade.
The parade was televised locally, and a short write-up was read to the viewing audience about the
NWS diversity and outreach efforts to the African American community in Shreveport. During the
parade the participating staff handed out NWS pens, rulers, Severe Weather Preparedness Brochures,
and candy. This year the WFO was recognized in an award ceremony for their participation in this
annual event. The parade is a big event in Shreveport, with over 200 organizations participating.

The Shreveport staff had a power lunch in recognition of African American History Month. Byron
McCauley, the Editorial Page Editor of The Times, a local newspaper, and his wife Jill McCauley,
the Racial Justice Director for the local YWCA, led the staff in discussion on the theme for the year,
"The Color Line Revisited: Is Racism Dead?." The discussion focused on racism in the Shreveport
community, which brought out thoughts and feelings about racism while remaining a positive
discussion.

Jason Bobo, a seventh grade student from Haugton Middle School in Haugton, Louisiana, worked
with met intern Jason Hansford, as he participated in the local Ground Hog Job Shadowing Program.
Jason was shown how to interpret satellite imagery, decode METAR observations, how CRS and
AWIPS worked, observed the launching of a weather balloon, and how to use the upper air
equipment, as well as how to decode the data. Jason plans to become a meteorologist and attend the
University of Oklahoma.

Zachary Bartley of Greens Acres Middle School in Bossier City worked with Bill Parker, as he
participated in the local Ground Hog Job Shadowing Program. Zachary worked seven hours with
Bill on the swing shift. During the shift Zachary assisted in the upper air release, learned how to
analyze surface maps, and learned to interpret radar, satellite and model data. Zachary watched the
video "Forecast for the Future," and was surprised by all the responsibilities the NWS has. Zachary
finished up the evening assisting Bill in the evening zone forecast update. He said next year he
would like to work a midnight shift.

Forecaster Bill Murrell participated as a judge for the Science Fair at Eden Gardens Elementary
School located in Shreveport. He judged several projects dealing with different aspects of science.

WFO TALLAHASSEE. Senior forecaster and EEO focal point Ron Block represented the NWS
as a judge at the Big Bend regional science fair. He discussed severe weather and weather warnings
as part of a Black History Month festival at the Walker-Ford Community Center, and distributed
literature and/or discussed minority opportunities at the Gadsden County Black Heritage Educational
Foundation, Florida A&M Black Research Center, the Palmer-Munroe Community Center, and the
Tallahassee Urban League's Unity in the Community multi-cultural festival. Ron also represented
the NWS at the North Florida Hispanic Association Valentine's Fiesta.